The Miserable Mill - Lemony Snicket

The Miserable Mill
By: Lemony Snicket
Published: 2000
Audiobook Read by: Lemony Snicket
My rating: Delightful







And now we find ourselves miserably listening to the horrible calamities that befall the unfortunate Baudelaire Orphans as they find themselves at the detestable Lucky Smells Lumber Mill in this fourth book in Lemony Snicket's awful series. We loved it!

Sunny, Klaus, and Violet, have the privilege of being Lucky Smell's newest employees. However, despite the fact they get chewing gum for lunch, live in one big dormitory with all the other workers, and never see the face or learn the name of their new guardian, the children aren't happy! With all this wonderful charity being bestowed upon them, one would think they would be ecstatic! I mean, it's not just anyone that gets to work at such a prestigious establishment! How could they turn their back on the kindness of a man who offers such bounty?

Well, as you and I both know, this is not the kind of life for three such wonderful children and after all their previous misadventures, it would be nice to say they had finally found a happy home. I can't say that honestly, so, nice as it may have been, I won't say it! In fact, I think they have found the second most unhappy home of their lives! And when, you know who turns up again, (I'm sure you know who I am referring to so I won't grieve you by mentioning Count Olaf's name here) their situation becomes even more pitiful! It seems that no matter how hard they try to get away from him, you know who is going to find them and make trouble! And trouble is what they have! Shirley is bound and determined to get her ugly hands on the children and uses every means at her disposal to do so! Things get rather grim when she manages to get Klaus to help her but thanks to the wonderful book, Advanced Ocular Science, Violet figures out how to stop him. In the end they foil you know who's plans once again and they continue on to live miserably ever after....or at least I'm pretty sure they will!

We enjoyed this book much more than The Wide Window. I think the friendliness of Charles and Phil gave just enough relief from the misery to make the entire book more fun. Despite the awful circumstances the children constantly find themselves in, and the way Snicket makes that theme so enjoyable to hear about, it seems to be important to have a small amount of goodness to temper the bad. We'll see how that theory plays out in the rest of the series.

Once again this audiobook was read by Lemony Snicket, and once again, we did not like his narration. He just doesn't give the book the life it could have, but that hasn't stopped us from enjoying it!

Overall, this is yet another fun book about pain and suffering that will leave you laughing! I have never encountered such entertaining misery in all my life as this series offers! :) Don't hesitate to read these....if you dare!